


Bravado

by buoyantsaturn



Series: Prompts [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Based on a Tumblr Post, Headcanon prompt, M/M, business man!nico, kindergarten teacher!will, single dad!nico
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-19
Updated: 2018-04-05
Packaged: 2019-03-21 10:57:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13739430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buoyantsaturn/pseuds/buoyantsaturn
Summary: anonymous said: I really need kindergarten teacher Will and hot single dad Nico.buoyantsaturn answered: bruh me tooit's that headcanon list but as a fic





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i listened exclusively to lorde on the day that i wrote this so the title is bravado by lorde thanks

Will had never pictured himself as a kindergarten teacher until he was hired as one. He’d wanted to be a doctor, but he couldn’t pay the tuition for so much schooling, and his scholarship only covered four years. He set his mind away from a doctorate and onto a master’s, so then he could teach at a high school level - hopefully biology or some kind of anatomy classes. He found himself gradually wanting to teach younger and younger students, until he was hired at an elementary school, teaching four- and five-year-olds. 

He realized after his first day on the job that teaching was  _ so much  _ more fun than he suspected surgery would be - and, by the time he was hired at the elementary school, he still would have had two years of medical school and a residency to complete. Instead, he spent his days reading Dr. Seuss books to his class and teaching them the educational basics through song. And the best part was, none of them could comment on his shitty guitar playing skills like everyone else always did!

He also greatly enjoyed being able to sleep, which he wasn’t sure he would have been able to do if he was in medical school. He was able to leave the school as soon as all of his students were picked up by their parents or guardians, and then he could go home and catch up on his DVR as soon as he got home, then be in bed by ten every night.

Except for on the rare occasion where one of his students was left behind, however. 

Lucy di Angelo - one of Will’s favorites, don’t tell the others - was still sitting at her desk after all of the other students had been picked up, her coat and backpack still hanging on her hook along the wall. 

Will had half a second to consider his two options: number one, awkwardly ask Lucy where her parent or guardian was, slowly pack up his own things and get ready to leave, then sit around at his down desk at the back of the room and wait in silence. Or option number two, which Will had already decided on before he’d even finished thinking up the first option. He grabbed a few coloring books and the bin of crayons from the shelf under the window and sat down across from Lucy with the supplies. 

About half an hour had been passed with mindless coloring - Will working carefully on a single picture while Lucy had already gone through three - when a man burst through the classroom door.

Will was startled by the sudden movement across the room, jumping slightly and locking his eyes on the figure before him. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t have taken his eyes away from the man and his loosened tie and ruffled hair; his pale skin flushed, no doubt from running to the classroom. Will watched as the expression on the man’s face changed in a flash - first flustered and almost angry, then softening once his eyes landed on Lucy, and...something else when he looked to Will.

“Holy shi-- uh, smokes, I’m so sorry,” the man started, leaning against the doorframe while he caught his breath. “Lucy’s babysitter quit on me unexpectedly yesterday, and I haven’t had time to find a replacement, and I got caught up at work, and--” He took a breath, glancing at the expensive-looking watch on his wrist. “Oh,  _ fu _ ...dge, I’m  _ really _ late, and  _ really _ sorry, and it won’t happen again, I promise.”

At some point - and he hoped that it wasn’t an uncomfortable amount of time later - Will jumped out of his seat and said, “Oh, no, it’s okay! We were just coloring, but I figured someone would be here sooner or later. I don’t mind, really, so don’t worry about it.”

Mr. di Angelo frowned. “Are you sure?” he asked, and then shook his head again. “No, you know what? It’s not okay.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, flipping it open and pulling something from one of the pockets. “Do you have a pen?”

“I have, uh, crayons?” Will responded, offering up the bin. He saw the corner of Mr. di Angelo’s lips twitch up in some kind of tiny smile as he accepted a single crayon, and he knelt down to write on the table as he scribbled something on the back of the card in his hand.

“This is my phone number,” Mr. di Angelo told him as he passed over the business card, still kneeling before Will as he did so. “Office and cell. If I’m late again - and I  _ won’t be _ \- call me, and I’ll be here as soon as I can.”

“Um, okay,” Will muttered, hoping that his face wasn’t as red as he thought it might be, and the card was forced into his hand.

Mr. di Angelo turned away from Will, looking toward his daughter who now had her coat and backpack with her. “Ready to go, Luce?”

Lucy nodded before saying, “Can you zip up my coat, Papa?”

“Of course, sweetheart,” her father answered as he zipped up her coat and pressed a kiss to her forehead. He picked up her backpack with one hand and took his daughter’s hand with the other. “See you later, Mr. Solace.”

“Bye, Mr. Solace!” Lucy called and waved with her free hand as they walked through the doorway.

“Bye,” Will replied too late, after they’d already left the room. 

Once he was finally able to unfreeze himself, the first thing he did was pry the case off of his phone and tuck the business card between his phone and its case - the one place he was certain that he wouldn't lose that card. He hurriedly packed up his things and left the building, only pausing once he got into his car. He let his head fall back against the headrest as he fished his phone out of his pocket, scrolled through his contacts, and hit the dial button on Lou Ellen’s contact.

“Hey, loser, what’s up?” Lou answered, sounding like she was eating a bag of chips.

“I got a pretty boy’s phone number,” Will said, his voice sounding much whinier than he had intended it to.

“Nice! How’d you manage that?” 

“He wrote it on the back of his business card when he picked his daughter up just now, and told me to call him if he was ever late for pickup again.”

“Well shit, you can’t use that.”

“I know!” Will cried, dropping his head forward until it hit the center of his steering wheel and sounded the horn.

 

* * *

 

About a month after Nico’s first meeting with his daughter’s teacher - sidenote: he couldn’t  _ wait  _ until parent-teacher conferences so that he had an excuse to stare at that  _ beautiful  _ man, though he was still trying to think up some explanation for when he inevitably got caught trying to count Mr. Solace's freckles - he had to take a half-day off work to take Lucy to a doctor’s appointment. 

He stopped in the front office when he got inside, letting the secretary know what he was there for so that she could call down to Mr. Solace’s classroom.

The secretary hung up the phone after a few moments. “I’m sorry, there was no answer.”

Nico frowned, tapping his fingers lightly on the counter. “Would it be alright if I went down to the classroom myself? Lucy has a doctor’s appointment, and I’m already kind of pushing the time right now.”

“I suppose that would be alright,” the secretary answered. “You know which room it is?”

“Yes, thank you,” he said, and stepped out of the room. 

Nico could tell why Mr. Solace’s phone hadn’t been answered before he even got to the classroom. From the other end of the hall, Nico could hear loud music and singing coming from the last classroom in the hallway, and it only got louder once Nico opened the door (he didn’t knock because why bother when he knew that nobody would hear him anyway?).

Mr. Solace was sitting criss-cross on the floor at the front of the room, playing the guitar that was sitting in his lap and singing some song that he might have made up himself. Around him, a handful of students - including Lucy - were playing tambourines and triangles and little cymbals to some off-beat of the song. The rest of the class made up the audience, singing along noisily as Mr. Solace led them through the song.

Mr. Solace glanced down at the frets for a few moments, and met Nico’s eyes when he finally looked up again. His fingers caught on the strings and he stuttered over the words until the song halted altogether, his face growing a soft pink as he stared up at Nico like a deer caught in the headlights.

“Sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt,” Nico said, “but Lucy has a doctor’s appointment and you weren’t answering the classroom phone.”

“Oh,” Mr. Solace said, seeming frozen for a moment before startling himself out of his daze. “Uh, Lucy, hand off your tambourine to someone. Raise your hand if you haven’t had a turn in the band yet today.” A few kids raised their hands and Lucy passed off her instrument before collecting her coat and backpack. “Everyone said bye to Lucy and Mr. di Angelo!”

They left in a chorus of ‘bye’s and rushed out of the building, hopping into Nico’s car which he’d parked in the fire lane right outside the school. Nico helped Lucy buckle into her carseat before jumping into the driver’s seat and starting the car.

“Did you have fun at school today, Luce?” Nico asked as he pulled out of the parking lot.

“Yeah! Mr. Solace taught us a new song today, and we had chicken nuggets for lunch!” she exclaimed.

“That’s awesome,” Nico replied. “Does Mr. Solace teach you a lot of songs?”

“Yeah, there’s the shape song, and the alphabet song, and the backwards alphabet song, and the animal song, and all sorts of songs. Mr. Solace said he wrote all of them all on his own.”

“That’s super cool! Did he ever talk about playing these songs at home for his own kids? Or maybe he said that his wife or girlfriend or someone helped him write them?”

Lucy pouted, either in confusion or in irritation at Nico’s continuing questions, and said, “I dunno, Papa. Can we get McDonald’s after we go to the doctor’s?”

Nico sighed, trying to hide his disappointment in the lack of answers. “Of course, sweetheart.” He could never turn down a Happy Meal, anyway.

 

* * *

 

It was a while before Will saw Lucy’s dad again. Either he would show up on time and get lost in the mix of every other parent picking up their child, or someone else would arrive, introducing themself as Lucy’s aunt or uncle.

(What Will  _ didn’t  _ know was that every time this happened, Mr. di Angelo would come home to Lucy’s Aunt Reyna or Uncle Jason telling him that that teacher of hers was very attractive and Nico should jump on that - “I did  _ not _ say  _ jump him, _ I meant ask him out!”)

There did come another time, however, that Mr. di Angelo was late for pickup time and no aunts or uncles arrived in his place. Will couldn’t help but feel excited every time that Lucy had to hang around for a little while longer, always getting his hopes up that her very pretty father would show up.

This day in particular had been one where Will had brought his guitar to school, so when ten minutes had passed where Lucy was the only student remaining in the classroom, she asked him, “Can you teach me how to play your guitar?” And how could Will say no to her?

They were found almost a half an hour later sitting on the floor, the guitar nearly consuming Lucy and her tiny frame as she struggled to reach the desired frets while also strumming. Will was giving his full attention to helping Lucy learn, so he didn’t notice the classroom’s door opening, nor did he see Mr. di Angelo crossing the room and stopping near the wall. He did, however, see a flash of light from somewhere in front of him, and looked up to see Mr. di Angelo leaning against the back wall, his phone in his hand.

“Oh, shhh--sugar, uh, Lucy, grab your stuff,” Will said, taking the guitar out of her lap and rising up to set it in the case on the table next to him. “Sorry, Mr. di Angelo, um, I didn’t notice you walk in, and--”

“Don’t worry about it, it was cute,” Mr. di Angelo said, crossing the room until he was standing directly in front of Will.

“Cute?” Will nearly squeaked, feeling his face growing red.

“And please don’t call me Mr. di Angelo, we’re like, the same age,” he continued, a small smile breaking out on his lips. “You can call me Nico. And you could also maybe go out to dinner with me sometime, if you’re interested.”

“Yes!” Will exclaimed immediately before the words had fully processed in his mind. He saw the smile on Nico’s face brighten exponentially, before he had to ruin it and say, “Wait, no--”

“Oh,” Nico said with a pout, taking a step back before Will reached out and grabbed his hands in his own.

“No, no, wait,” Will tried again, realizing that he wasn’t making anything clearer. “I don’t know if I can. I’m Lucy’s teacher and you’re Lucy’s dad, and I don’t know if that’s going to be weird for her, and I think the school might have some kind of rule against it?”

Nico pouted up at Will for a moment before he turned toward Lucy who was bouncing around on a hopscotch rug in the corner. “Hey Luce, how do you feel about having Mr. Solace come over for dinner sometime?”

“Yeah!” Lucy cried, which Nico took to mean that she was okay with it. 

He turned back to Will and said, “So, Mr. Solace--”

“Oh, God, please call me Will.”

Nico ducked his head as he laughed softly. “Will, would you like to come over for dinner sometime? You could pretend that it’s some kind of thank-you for teaching my daughter, but when I kiss you at the end of the night, I’d like you to know ahead of time that it doesn’t have anything to do with your teaching abilities.”

Will knocked his forehead against Nico’s with a soft whine. “I really,  _ really _ want to, but--”

“When’s the last day of school?” Nico asked suddenly. “June eighth?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“June ninth, seven o’clock,” Nico told him. “You will officially no longer be Lucy’s teacher, so you’re coming over for dinner. I’ll cook something special for you, just say yes.”

“Yeah, yes,” Will said. “That sounds...amazing.”

“Good,” Nico said. “You should text me sometime between now and then. Preferably sooner than later, and hopefully frequently.”

“I’m finally gonna be able to use that phone number you gave me,” Will said in an awestruck voice.

“Yeah, please do,” Nico replied. “Now, we gotta run, but I’m sure I’ll be hearing from you soon.” He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Will’s cheek before pulling away and leading Lucy out of the classroom.

Will was in a daze from when they left until he got into his car, where he pulled out his cell phone and dialed Lou Ellen’s number.

“What’s up, loser?”

“I have a date in one month and seventeen days,” Will told her, smiling so wide that his cheeks were starting to hurt. 

Lou sighed, and he could practically hear her rolling her eyes through the phone. “Well, that’s better than nothing, I guess.”

“You don’t even know,” Will agreed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> its done!!! finally!!!! thank god!!!!  
> i didn't proofread it bc im sick of looking at it!!! i literally just finished typing the last sentence and opened up ao3 bc im done with it so sorry if theres any typos or anything!!!!! i personally dont think its as cute as the first part but i hope you enjoy it still!!
> 
> thanks to leo-atthedisco on tumblr for helping me write this!!

Will had been about to leave his house for his long-awaited date with Nico when Lou Ellen showed up at his door. She took one look at him in his usual t-shirt and flannel and jeans and marched him right back into his house. She demanded that he button up and tuck in his shirt while she dug through his closet to find him a tie, despite all of Will’s protesting that he was going to be overdressed.

By the time Lou had finally allowed him to leave, ten minutes had passed and Will was already starting to overheat. Lou insisted that Will stop at a store on his way to pick up a bottle of wine - “Because these are things people  _ do _ for dates, Will, not that you would know,” - but after Will stared down the wine selected in the nearest grocery store for almost five full minutes, he rolled his eyes and bought a bouquet of flowers instead.

Even driving five-over the whole way, Will still wound up arriving at Nico’s about five minutes late, tugging at the collar of his shirt as he rang the doorbell and feeling terrified that he was starting to smell like sweat. He was about to sniff under his arm to see if his suspicions were true when the door opened in front of him.

“Hi, Mr. Solace!” Lucy exclaimed, and was hugging Will’s legs before he knew what was happening.

“Hi, Lucy,” Will replied, “is your dad here somewhere?”

Lucy pulled herself away and grabbed Will’s hand - the one that wasn’t carrying the bouquet of flowers - and dragged him into the house. “Papa! Mr. Solace is here!”

Nico came around the corner from where Will assumed might’ve been the kitchen. “Lucy, you know you’re not supposed to open the door without me.”

“But Papa, Mr. Solace is here,” Lucy repeated, and Nico knelt down in front of her, placing his hands on her shoulders.

“Lucy. You’re not allowed to open the front door unless I’m standing there with you,” Nico said sternly. “There could be somebody dangerous on the other side of the door, okay? Do you understand?” Lucy nodded. “Good, okay. Can you set the table for me, sweetheart?” Lucy nodded again, and Nico pressed a kiss to her forehead before ushering her off toward the kitchen.

He rose back to his feet before turning to face Will, the stern look on his face vanishing and being replaced by a bright smile - Will felt like the room had suddenly grown ten degrees warmer, and he didn’t know if the heat he was feeling was from a lack of air conditioning or from the smile Nico was aiming at him. 

“Hi,” Nico said, stepping closer. Will tried not to be obvious as his eyes scanned over the man in front of him - he looked so much more relaxed than he usually did in his perfectly tailored suits, instead wearing an old band t-shirt and worn out jeans, and Will suddenly felt even more overdressed than before. 

“Hi,” Will repeated. “Um, I got these for you.” He held out the flowers with a stiff arm, feeling like he was a fifteen year old on his first date and  _ certain _ that he reeked of sweat by now. “A friend of mine said that I should bring a bottle of wine, but I don’t know anything about wine at all, so I thought flowers might be a better way to go.”

Nico bit his lip, looking like he might have been holding back a laugh, and took the flowers from Will. “Thank you, Will,” he said. He rose up on his tiptoes, placing a hand on Will’s chest to stabilize himself as he pressed a kiss to Will’s cheek. “You look amazing, by the way.”

Will felt like he was on  _ fire, _ and with Nico so close to him he was almost afraid to breathe. “I feel a little overdressed, if I’m being honest.”

“What? No, you’re not--” Nico glanced down at Will’s clothes, and then seemed to realize how comfortably he was dressed. “Shit, I forgot to change. I’m sorry, I have nicer clothes laid out and everything but I guess I lost track of time--”

“Oh, no, nonono, don’t worry about it!” Will said quickly. “You still look great - God, I bet you look amazing in  _ anything, _ you  _ so _ don’t have to worry about it.”

They exchanged a surprised look, Will’s face growing red and Nico’s lips slowly curling up into a smile. Nico grabbed Will’s hand and pulled him further into the house, telling him, “Come on, you can put these in a vase for me while I finish up dinner.”

Will followed him into the kitchen, which was big and bright and smelled  _ amazing,  _ and took the flowers and a large mason jar when Nico handed them to him. 

“I, uh, don’t think I actually have any vases,” Nico said when he handed over the jar. 

As Nico turned away from him, Will took a moment to roll up his sleeves before going over to the sink to fill the jar with water. He set the jar aside and unwrapped the tissue paper that surrounded the stems of the flowers, then placed the flowers in the jar.

When he turned around, Nico was pulling a casserole dish out of the oven and placing it on the granite countertop of the island between them. 

“That smells amazing,” Will told him, leaning forward against the island to get a closer look. 

“I did promise to cook you something special, didn’t I?” Nico reminded him. “It’s lasagna, a family recipe.”

“I helped make it!” Lucy called, rushing in from the dining room. 

“Did you?” Will asked. “That’s amazing, you’re probably already a better cook than I am.”

“But I’m not even allowed to cook by myself, does that mean you’re a really bad cook?”

“Lucy, don’t be rude,” Nico scolded, though he seemed more focused on cutting the lasagna into serving-sized portions. 

“It’s alright,” Will assured him before he crouched down to talk with Lucy. “I’m a really  _ really _ bad cook. I can’t even cook noodles without burning something, so instead I eat a lot of takeout Chinese food and pizza.”

“I wanna eat a lot of pizza all the time!” Lucy exclaimed.

“But you can’t do that, because it’s really bad for you,” Will told her. He leaned closer and whispered, “Maybe if I’m lucky, your papa will let me come over again soon and you can teach me how to cook something healthy.”

“Yeah!” Lucy shouted, and ran around Will and the corner of the island until she was standing next to her father. “Papa, can Mr. Solace come over again soon and we can teach him how to cook?”

Will straightened up and leaned against the island again, only to see Nico raising an eyebrow at him. “We’ll see,” he said, but there was a hint of a smile in his eyes.

 

They sat down at the table with their plates of lasagna, Nico and Will sitting across from each other and Lucy at the head of the table. Nico brought out three wine glasses - Will assumed they were Italian based on their last name, but he didn’t think that Nico was  _ so  _ Italian that he would let his six-year-old have wine with dinner - though he only filled two with a dark red wine. The third was filled with regular grape juice and was placed in front of Lucy. “She likes to feel included,” Nico explained.

Will took a bite of his lasagna, glancing up to see Nico watching him, as if waiting to see his reaction, so Will told him, “It’s delicious.”

“Good,” Nico said. “I’m glad you like it.”

“We made it  _ from scratch,” _ Lucy said, seeming proud of herself to know such a grown-up cooking term.

“Wait, seriously?” Will asked. “Like, completely from scratch?”

“I mean, I bought the beef and cheese and those kinds of things, of course,” Nico explained. “But we made the pasta and the tomato sauce yesterday after I got home from work, and then we put everything together and baked it today.”

“Alright, and let me just get one thing straight: you don’t cook for your career, right? You’re an amazing cook and no one is paying you to do it?”

Nico tried to hide his smile being his wine glass. “No, I’m not a professional chef, just Italian.”

“You know, I probably couldn’t even cook one of those Stouffer’s lasagnas without majorly screwing it up somehow,” Will told him. 

“That’s not even real lasagna,” Nico said with a roll of his eyes.

“Yeah? Then what is?” 

“You’re eating it.”

Will laughed, and Nico looked proud of himself for making that happen.

 

Through dinner, Will learned that Nico worked as one of the senior executives at his father’s recording company and lived the first half of his life in Italy. Nico discovered that Will had intended on becoming a doctor before changing his path to teaching instead, and that he only learned how to play the guitar because his brother had forced him to. 

Will helped Nico clean up the dishes after they’d finished eating, and soon after clearing the table Lucy had dragged Will into the living room for some kind of surprise. 

She pulled a guitar from the corner of the room next to the couch - one much smaller than the one Will had, a guitar that might actually be the right size for Lucy to play - and she plopped down on the floor next to Will. She started playing, sometimes having to readjust her fingers on the frets a few times before she got the right chord, but Will was impressed either way. 

“Lucy, that was great!” he told her when she stopped playing. “Have you been practicing? You’re getting so good!”

“I practice all the time! Papa bought me this for my birthday and I even got some song books, but I don’t think I’m good enough yet to play them. Can you teach me more?”

“Of course,” Will said. “I just wish I knew, I could’ve brought my guitar so it would be a little easier for me to show you what to do.”

Will helped Lucy to reposition her fingers on the frets, showing her a few new chords before Nico’s voice called from the kitchen, “Lucy, bed time’s in five minutes.”

Will and Lucy looked up at the same time to see Nico standing in the doorway leading into the kitchen, a soft smile on his face. As Lucy got up to put her guitar away, Will made his way over to Nico, hoping the embarrassment wasn’t clear on his face.

“I’m so sorry, you must think I’m the worst date on the planet,” Will said. “I can’t believe I just ignored you for, like, ten minutes in favor of your daughter.”

“It was more like twenty, but it’s fine,” Nico said, but Will still winced slightly. “It was cute. The last couple of dates I went on, I brought Lucy with me and the guys just flat out pretended that she wasn’t there. It’s a nice change of pace to see that you actually care about her.”

“Of course I care about her,” Will said, “but isn’t the point of a date sort of to prove that I care about you, too?”

Nico ducked his head, but Will still saw the smile on his lips. “I have to go read Lucy a bedtime story. Make yourself comfortable, I’ll be right back.”

“Okay,” Will said. “Hopefully then I’ll be able to make it up to you for ignoring you for so long.”

Nico walked down the hall toward where Will assumed the bedrooms were, but Lucy came running past him, straight to Will. “I don’t wanna bedtime story! I want Mr. Solace to sing me a song!”

Nico looked at Will, seeming unsure of what to say, so Will spoke first. “Uh, yeah, sure, if it’s okay with your papa.”

“Yeah, go ahead,” Nico said, and Lucy shouted in joy before she grabbed Will’s hand and dragged him down the hall to her room.

Lucy climbed into her bed and Will waited for her to get settled before he took a seat on the edge of the mattress, glancing toward the door to see that Nico had followed them though he hovered in the doorway. 

“What song do you want me to sing?” Will asked.

“The animal song, from school!” Lucy demanded.

“Okay,” Will said, and began to sing. He felt a bit awkward at first, singing without his guitar and knowing that Nico was standing close by and listening, but once Lucy started to sing along with him he felt much better. When the song was over, Lucy cheered and clapped her hands and thanked Will for the song. Will said a quick goodnight before stepping out of the room to let Nico say a private goodnight to his daughter. 

Will found himself distracted by the pictures on the wall in the hallway as he made his way toward the living room, spotting baby pictures of Lucy with an assortment of adults - Will recognized Lucy’s Aunt Reyna and Uncle Jason among them - and was only brought out of his observing when he heard Nico shut Lucy’s bedroom door behind himself. 

He saw Nico try to hide a yawn behind his hand as he made his way over, and Will suddenly felt guilty for staying so long.

“It’s, uh, it’s getting late,” Will said awkwardly. “I don’t want to take up any more of your night, so maybe I should--”

“I wouldn’t mind if you did,” Nico cut in. “Come on, stay a little longer? If you leave now, it’ll seem like you were just here for Lucy, and then I’ll know that you were intentionally ignoring me earlier.”

“Are you sure?” Will asked. “You seem a little tired, I just don’t want to keep you from getting your rest.”

Nico waved him off, saying, “I have a six-year-old, I’m always tired. Have another glass of wine with me?” He took one of Will’s hands as he walked past him, guiding him back into the living room.

“I probably shouldn’t, since I’m driving,” Will reminded him.

“Water, then?” Nico offered. “Or I can make coffee?”

“Water’s fine.”

Nico gestered into the living room with a, “Make yourself at home,” before he stepped into the kitchen. Will took a seat on the couch and Nico returned a moment later with a glass of water for Will and wine for himself. He sat criss-cross at the opposite end of the couch, leaning back against the arm so that he could face Will.

They sat and talked for a little while, Nico only managing to finish half of his glass before his head tipped to rest against the back of the couch, blinking slowly and mostly just listening while Will did all the talking. 

“Are you sure you don’t want me to go?” Will asked after a particularly long blink, gently prying Nico’s wine glass from his hands and placing it on the coffee table next to them. “It looks like you’re about to fall asleep on me.”

Nico sighed, straightening up and stretching his arms over his head. “Maybe you’re right. But I’m still awake enough to walk you to the door.”

They rose from the couch, Nico moving a little slower than Will, and made their way to the door.

“I had a great time,” Will told him once they got to the door, though neither made a move to open it.

“You’re just saying that so I don’t feel bad for almost falling asleep,” Nico said. 

“No, I really mean it,” Will insisted. He leaned closer, taking Nico’s hands in his and lacing their fingers. “I hope this isn’t too forward of me, but I think I remember being promised a kiss at the end of the night.”

Nico hummed, smiling sleepily up at him. “Is that so? Well, I can’t break a promise.”

Will tipped his head down, pressing his lips to Nico’s softly, intending to keep the kiss chaste, but Nico pressed closer, releasing Will’s hands so that he could reach up and wrap his arms around Will’s shoulders. Will’s hands managed to find Nico’s waist before he had to break the kiss, unable to go on while he was smiling so wide. 

Nico rest his forehead against Will’s, one of his hands slipping from Will’s shoulder until he was tugging gently on Will’s tie. “Next time, I’ll try to remember to dress up for you.”

“Next time?” Will repeated.

“Yeah,” Nico whispered. “And I’m gonna kiss you again next time, too. That’s another promise you can’t let me break, okay?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!!!!  
> next up is the hot but oblivious!nico au so keep an eye out for that hopefully itll come to me faster than this one did!!

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!! i might do this again soon so if u have any suggestions on which of my headcanon lists i should turn into fics then please let me know either in the comments here or send me an ask on tumblr @ buoyantsaturn!!


End file.
